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Spark Energy

Spark Energy formed in 2007 and was bought by Ovo Energy in 2018. Spark focuses on meeting the needs of the rental market: letting agents, landlords and tenants.

Spark Energy started as a small independent supplier which claimed to offer competitive prices and be better than the Big Six on service. It grew fast and was the first energy supplier to be built around the rental market.

It stopped trading in November 2018 and Ovo Energy subsequently took over supplying energy to its 290,000 customers.

However, because Ovo Energy bought Spark Energy's operating company and brand, customers continue to be billed by Spark and contacted by its customer service staff. Ovo supplies customers’ gas and electricity, but Spark customers' tariffs won't change.

Which? verdict on Spark Energy

Spark Energy is ranked near the bottom of our table of 30 energy firms for the second year running. However, it hasn’t always been rated so poorly by its customers; in 2017 it was ranked mid-table.

Spark scored an unimpressive rating of two stars out of five from customers on every aspect, bar one, of its service we asked about.

It had the joint-worst proportion of customers ranking its bill clarity poor or very poor, along with Solarplicity. A fifth (21%) of customers we spoke to gave this verdict.

Customers weren’t much more positive about its customer service. Again, 20% said its online customer service was poor or very poor.

When we put all of the energy companies’ phone lines and online response times to the test in our snapshot customer waiting investigation, it took us 27min 49sec, on average, to get through to Spark Energy. This makes it the slowest energy company to respond to customer calls in our investigation.

It was much faster at responding to our live chat messages, taking just 25 seconds on average. Although its live chat wasn't always available during the hours the website said it should be.

On complaints-handling, Spark was one of five companies in our survey with more than 30% of its customers rating complaints handling poor or very poor.

Overall, customers were more positive about Spark’s prices, considering it fair value for money. Other firms are rated good, or even excellent, value for money, however.

Spark Energy has grown quickly and, from our years of studying energy companies, we’ve seen rapid expansion as one cause of other firms’ falls from grace. Now it’s owned by Ovo Energy, we’ll be keeping an eye out to see if its service improves.

Pros: Customers consider it reasonable value for money

Cons: It’s one of the worst performing energy companies with long call waiting times

Spark Energy electricity sources

Spark Energy in the news

November: Ofgem announced Spark Energy had failed and that Ovo Energy would take on its 290,000 customers. Ovo Energy also bought Spark Energy's brand and operating company, so customers will keep Spark tariffs and continue to be billed by Spark and deal with its customer service staff. But energy will be supplied under Ovo's licence.

Spark Energy is the biggest domestic energy company to go bust to date. Spark Business Utilities is still operating as usual.

It stopped trading just one day after Ofgem begun investigating Spark Energy for failing to make Renewables Obligation payments on time. Suppliers that don’t source the amount of electricity from renewable sources that Ofgem requires must pay into a fund. If Spark Energy doesn’t pay, Ofgem can issue a final order to make it do so.

September: Spark Energy raised the prices of both of its variable tariffs. Super Tracker customers saw a 6% increase, customer them £68 more per year on average. Digital Saver v1 customers saw a 9% increase, adding £113 extra per year on average to their bills.

June: Spark Energy added Sky TV to its bundles of home services. This follows an agreement it set up with broadband provider Home Telecom previously.